The Better Angels
by TheNewIdea
Summary: Set six months after the events of Everything Gets Better From Here. Dealing with a haunting past and the memory of Heinz, Perry tries to make a life for himself. Along the way, he finds a family from an unlikely source and uncovers the secrets of his past thanks to a mysterious journal left by Doofenshrimtz. Rated T for language, family and romantic drama


Six Months Later

Perry the Platypus woke up inside his cabin just outside the Danville city limits. For a moment he had forgotten that he had moved out there, in fact, this happened almost every day, it was getting to the point where Perry considered moving back in with the Fletchers.

After Perry made himself a cup of coffee to combat fatigue, Perry sat on the couch and stared out the large window that made up the right side of his living room wall. In a nearby tree he could see two birds nesting, they were cardinals by the look of them. Perry walked over and stared at them for several minutes, the female cardinal looked at Perry and then back to the male, who then also took a glance at the platypus who was standing in the window. The male cardinal flew over to the window and gently pecked on the glass, demanding to be let inside.

Perry was surprised at this and so opened the window to let the cardinal inside. The cardinal ruffled his feathers and then gave a happy little chirp. This was followed by the female giving a similar chirp. Perry smiled and held out his hand for the cardinal on the windowsill, who complied with Perry's offer and roosted on the platypus' finger.

"Hi" Perry said very casually so not to startle the bird

The cardinal, who couldn't speak, chirped again, this was enough for Perry to mean "hello."

The female cardinal, who now had a worm in its mouth carried said worm to Perry and presented it to him. Perry didn't understand the significance of this at the time; afterwards he knew that they had accepted him into the family, taking on the role of parents in this case.

Perry smiled and graciously took the worm, which he ate completely and without hesitation It had been a long time since the platypus had his native food and so he considered the worm to be a delicacy that was to be enjoyed immediately, not savored, and just eaten. The female cardinal nodded slightly and went back to the nest. The male turned to Perry, gave him a peck on hand and followed her.

Perry looked around the room and noticed that everything was relatively quiet. He looked out at the cardinals again, who had gone back to their business and left him alone. Perry sighed deeply, wishing for a moment that he wasn't alone.

There was a time when Perry had someone, a time before Phineas and Ferb, before he even came to America.

He had a nice plot in the Australian outback; it was on the bank of a pond, which was almost crystal clear. There was plenty of high reeds and various sticks. It was a good site. Perry also had a nice nest, in which were two eggs, the mother having gone off to forage, Perry offered to do it, but she insisted that he stay and watch the eggs, for he had been working for the better part of the day building and maintaining the nest. So Perry sat in front of it and waited.

Four days had passed with no sign of his mate; Perry looked around anxiously and found one of his neighbors, a kangaroo by the name of Jerry, to watch the eggs while he went looking for his mate. It didn't take long for Perry to come across the body.

Perry made a blind run back to the nest, at that moment shots rang out. When he returned he found Jerry lying dead in the pond and his eggs destroyed. He also found the remains of tire tracks; he sniffed them instinctively and decided to follow them.

He followed the tracks all the way to the nearest town, to discover that the tracks belonged to an Englishmen who had gone hunting. This was none other than Lawrence's father and Ferb's and eventually Phineas' grandfather. As soon as Granddad saw Perry, he had good idea what he was here for and immediately took pity.

"I'm sorry boy" Granddad said, "but I killed them. I killed them all."

Perry wanted to jump on top of Granddad and break his neck, but he remained where he was, to this day he doesn't know why he didn't or why he got in Granddad's truck. It was almost out of impulse, but at the same time he felt that he had betrayed everything that he come to know, he had betrayed Jerry, who was his friend, he had betrayed his kids and worst of all he had betrayed her.

Perry found himself in England and the rest as they say is history.

The phone on the coffee table next to the couch rang; walking over to it Perry picked it up.

"Hello?" Perry began, yawning a bit as he did so

"Perry?" It was Ferb, "Can you come over? There's something we need to talk about."

"Sure thing buddy, any time you know that" Perry answered, "I'll be there in 5."

Ferb was surprised by this, "5 minutes? Don't you live out in the country?"

Perry laughed nonchalantly, "I have a jetpack remember? I told you that. I can be anywhere in the world and still get to you in five minutes. It'd be pushing it of course but then again..."

Ferb hung up before Perry could finish, that was when the platypus knew he had been talking for too long. Perry shrugged, put on his jetpack, waved goodbye to his new cardinal friends and flew out the still open window.

Perry made it with no less than a minute to spare. He looked in the backyard and noticed that no construction was going on, deeply concerned by this, for there was always something going on at the Fletcher house; Perry made his way down to the backyard.

Ferb was standing next to his brother in front of the oak tree. As soon as they saw Perry they walked over, their faces grim and stoic.

"What's going on?" the platypus asked curiously, a worried look came on his face

"We're leaving Perry" Phineas answered, "We're going to England."

Perry's eyes widened at this, for a moment extremely confused and yet at the same time overjoyed at the prospect of returning to England, hoping to see if he could find Granddad and get some answers for questions that he didn't ask but always wanted to ask.

"You're not coming" Ferb said bluntly

"What?" Perry replied, hurt beyond description, "What do you mean I'm not coming? We're a family!"

Phineas shook his head solemnly, "We know that. But Mom and Dad don't think it's wise for you to come with us. It's too risky."

Perry groaned, obviously Linda and Lawrence were being paranoid. _"Can't they understand that isn't a part of my life?"_ he thought to himself, _"Doofenshrimtz is dead, Monogram is dead, Carl is running things at the agency and I'm out of all of it. What's the problem?"_

Phineas and Ferb said nothing and walked inside. Perry immediately felt weak in the knees, and not in the good way. Perry followed them inside.

Looking around the platypus saw no sign of Phineas and Ferb, they having gone up to their rooms to pack their things. Almost as soon as he stepped in the house, Lawrence and Linda, who were in the living room, stood and faced him.

"We're just trying to do what's best for them" Lawrence began

"By keeping me from seeing them?" Perry scoffed

Linda folded her arms defensively, "They aren't yours to keep."

Perry rolled his eyes, not believing that Linda was playing the card she had dealt. In response, the platypus raised his voice, it wasn't quite shouting, he wasn't mad enough for that, but it was close.

"They're just a part of my life as they are yours!"

Lawrence shook his head dismissively, "You're just going to have to live without them."

At this Perry ran across the room and tackled Lawrence to the ground. The platypus got directly in his face; the barbs on the heels of his feet were begging to be dug into Lawrence's stomach. Perry resisted the urge and spat in Lawrence's face.

"You listen to me!" Perry screamed, "I can't live without those kids. My entire life I've worked for their protection. Everything I did was for them!"

Lawrence, not really caring only shrugged and attempted to stand, but Perry had him pinned, "I'm going to give you five seconds to get off of me" Lawrence replied. Perry ignored him and continued.

"I don't much care that you know; in fact I don't give a shit. But don't let that change your perceptions of reality."

Linda gave a cold, heartless laugh and shook her head in disbelief, "They're not safe with you in their lives"

"No, they're not safe with you in their lives!" Perry responded, "Don't you get it? I'm done with the agency. Doofenshrimtz is dead. Nothing is keeping me or holding me back anymore..."

Linda only cut him off, "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be" she replied, "They can hear you upstairs."

Perry only laughed; in fact he wanted them to hear. "Good" he exclaimed, "Maybe then you'll see that I loved them just as much as you did, perhaps more."

"Get out of my house and get off my husband" Linda threatened

Perry complied but only for the sake of leaving the situation and not because he was following an order.

Perry wiped his eyes, took off his fedora, which he had on, and threw it in the corner of the room, he then made his way towards the door and walked out.

Linda walked over to the kitchen and began to frantically wash a restless pot with lasagna, her eyes furrowed and her nails dug into the rust of the cast iron of the pot.

"Enough" Lawrence said as he walked over and embraced his wife, "enough."

Linda was crying in Lawrence's arm, her words barely audible, "Did we do the right thing Lawrence?"

Lawrence nodded, "We have to do what's best for our children dear."

Linda broke away and continued once again with the pot, "He was the best thing for our children." Lawrence only stared at Linda; a look of confusion came on his face.

"Look at our kids" Linda continued, "Before Perry came into their lives they were loners. They didn't have any friends. Perry helped them in more than perhaps we ever could with that. He made things easier. The kids they met weren't focused on them, they were focused on Perry. That's how they met Isabella, a girl at that, before they never even considered talking to girls, now they're happier than they ever could have been."

Lawrence sighed in partial understanding and nodded, "We'll make a new life for ourselves in Britain, you'll see. It's better than Danville." Linda nodded, finally seeing logic in Lawrence, "Yes you're right" she replied, "I just hope we don't regret it."

* * *

_"I never thought it could happen"_ Perry said to himself as he began walking down the street, people with umbrellas passed him by, for now it was beginning to rain. _"My life was over, and it was only just beginning."_

Perry found himself standing in front of the OWCA building. He looked in the security booth to find that Nelly, the security guard, was out for lunch. Perry sighed and leaned in, trying to see if he could page the door, he saw the button to open the gate, but it was out of reach. Perry gave up and sighed heavily; the platypus then looked around and headed back on the main street.

Perry came across Isabella, who was going door to door selling Fireside Girl cookies. Isabella was dragging what seemed to be a heavy wagon. Perry didn't hear the conversation between the man at the door and Isabella, but he didn't need to, because it ended with the slam of the door and Isabella sadly dragging her wagon away back on the sidewalk.

Perry, feeling generous and seizing the opportunity to have someone to talk to, walked over to Isabella and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I'll take some" he said as he held out a twenty-dollar bill, literally on his bill to try to humor her.

Isabella sighed, "It's okay Perry" she replied sadly, "You really don't have to"

Perry cut her off, "I want to" Perry casually flipped his bill up, causing the money to land right in Isabella's hand, only for her to drop it, just when the twenty would've hit the ground, Perry caught it with his tail, which he raised right up to Isabella to firmly grasp the money and pocket it.

"This is twenty dollars Perry" Isabella exclaimed as she handed him a box, "That's enough for three boxes, are you sure that you want that many?" Perry nodded and smiled casually, "Of course I do. I love cookies, besides; I haven't had em in a while. That and...You could use the money."

Isabella then opened her purse, she felt it only right that Perry get whatever change he would normally receive, but Perry wasn't having it. "Keep the money Isabella" Perry continued, "If you won't accept it as a friend, think of it as a donation from a generous Fireside Girl supporter."

Isabella hugged Perry and lifted the platypus off the ground. Perry returned the hug; a single tear could be seen down the platypus' face. Isabella set Perry down and walked away. Perry wanted to ask if she knew about Phineas and Ferb, but he didn't, he could tell just by looking at her that she did. She was just as broken as he was, perhaps a bit more.

Perry continued down the street and made his way to the local coffee shop. Buford and Baljeet were behind the counter serving morning costumers. At seeing Perry, Buford came over with his usual, black coffee filled with bugs. Perry lifted his hand, stopping him, "Hold the bugs Buford" Perry whispered, too tired to speak up and not feeling like himself. Buford laughed, "Feeling adventurous are we?" Buford asked playfully, Perry rolled his eyes and turned towards Buford, "I'm always adventurous."

Buford poured Perry his coffee and brought it over to him and sat down across from the platypus for a moment, the crowd having died down enough that Baljeet could handle it on his own. "You back in the agency yet?" Buford asked hopefully, "No" Perry answered bluntly, "I'm done with that place." Buford leaned back in his chair and gave a long and heavy sigh as if he were reminiscing about something, "Man, I gotta tell yah, life sure was exciting. Do you miss it?" Perry was curious about why Buford said this, for he only very recently found out about his identity as a secret agent, almost immediately after Perry gave up the life of espionage. To say that he missed it would be an understatement, but to say that his life wasn't better because of it would be lying, for Perry easily prolonged his life by four years.

"I'd be lying if I said that I didn't" Perry answered, "but I can't say that I'm heartbroken Buford. Leaving the OWCA was the best thing that I've ever done, I'm never going back." Buford huffed and shook this off, "So what's next for the great Perry the Platypus?" Perry laughed at the statement, "I'm not great Buford. Not even close." Buford stared at Perry with a cold expression, obviously disappointed with his response; Buford placed his big hand on the platypus' shoulder, causing Perry to look directly in Buford's eyes.

Like a teacher to a student, Buford's gaze was all-knowing, far-reaching and final. It was the gaze that said that everything was going to be okay, that everything was going to get better from here on out. Buford said nothing, patted Perry's shoulder and walked back over to the counter. Perry attempted to stand to pay for his coffee, but Buford only pointed to the door. When Perry tried to leave a tip, Buford leaped over the counter and threw the money back in Perry's face. Perry nodded in understanding, picked up the money and walked out.


End file.
